Zurich & Northeastern Switzerland

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What This Book Will Tell You

For over 20 years I have been living in and visiting Switzerland on a yearly basis. My job in this Alpine country has been as a writer, farm hand, and tour guide. Needless to say, I've gotten to experience Switzerland as the Swiss do, and have been able to visit the little out-of-the-way places few tourists ever visit. This book will help guide you to those places, as well as to the traditional hot spots.

If you want to experience the Alps at their finest, then the traditional towns of Zermatt, Davos, Interlaken and St. Moritz are for you. Besides spectacular mountain scenery and snow sports opportunities, these areas offer superb accommodations, fine eateries and a lively nightlife.

However, for those who want to shuffle along the path less traveled, we'll also take a walk to less-frequented areas such as Saas-Fee, Leukerbad, Vevey, Zofingen, and Langenthal. In these quaint places, you'll see more of the real Swiss – how they live, work, make a living, and how they celebrate.

Switzerland keeps evolving, and yet in some ways, it never changes. Yodeling, Emmentaler cheese, milking and watchmaking are still part of the culture after hundreds of years, enriched by all the modern conveniences, which are never far away.

How This Book is Organized

After this introduction – which gives you a broad overview of Swiss life and culture – we'll tell you how to get the most out of your visit. You'll learn about the seven regions of Switzerland, and the cantons (areas akin to our state counties) within those regions, as well as their major attractions and cities.

Within each canton profile we'll highlight the history of the region and then give some basic information – accommodations, restaurants, best sights, and don't-miss spots. Of course, some cantons, such as Zug or Appenzell-Innerrhoden will have less to see and do than the cantons of Bern, Valais, or Graubünden. We'll also provide you with extras, such as where to find the best Swiss porcelain or finest Swiss lace, for example. You'll get information on the best times of the year to visit certain areas, and insights into traditional festivals, such as Bern's Onion Festival and Basel's Faschnacht, as well as the annual national Schwingfest.

As many Swiss would say, Viel spass und viel Glück! – Have fun and much luck!

The Seven Regions of Switzerland

For the purposes of this book, we have divided Switzerland into seven distinct regions in order to help you with your travels throughout this beautiful and unique country. Swiss geography was originally formed through the development of glaciers. Switzerland became a stunning mixture of valleys, gently rolling hills, ominous mountains, and streams, rivers and land-locked lakes – all the result of glaciers. Over time, and as more areas became part of the Swiss Confederation, the development of the cantons evolved. Starting with the original three cantons of Switzerland (Schwyz, Glarus, and Uri), another 23 eventually joined them, each with its own unique history, culture and traditions.

This guide begins by examining the northern region of Switzerland, and then moves to the southeast, before covering the middle of the country. We then make our way up to the northwestern and southwestern sides of Switzerland, before journeying farther south to the most mountainous portion of the country.

History

Geography played a vital role in the history of the development of Switzerland. The brutal terrain provided a barrier of unity for the Swiss, and gave them independence from outside neighbors. Switzerland was once part of the mighty Roman Empire during the first century BC. A Celtic tribe known as the Helvetii was conquered by the Romans and continued to live under their protection, until the Germans invaded the area in the fifth century. The country eventually became part of the Holy Roman Empire again in the 11th century after a series of battles.

In 1291 the three cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden banded together and formed the Swiss Confederation – celebrating their independence from all other factions on August 1st of that year, which is still celebrated as the national independence day throughout Switzerland.

During the centuries that followed, more cantons were added to the young country. Lucerne joined in 1332, Zürich in 1351, Glarus and Zug in 1352 and Bern in 1353 as territorial expansion accelerated. However, at times small wars would break out between the cantons, as each one struggled for military control and power. Cantons Fribourg and Solothurn were admitted to Switzerland in 1481, Basel and Schaffhausen in 1501, and Appenzell in 1513.

As additional cantons were added, Switzerland's economy flourished. Silk goods, linens, wool and cottons experienced the greatest growth and, by the 18th century, Geneva had gained a reputation for clock production. Zürich became the center for literature and new ideas. Napoleon had a short stint of supervision over Switzerland in the late 1790s, which gave France the ability to recruit 14-15,000 men for his national army. After his demise, Switzerland was forced to develop a new constitution, which was christened the Pact of 1815, giving Swiss citizens freedom of religion, of movement, and freedom from occupation. The cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva were officially established at this time as well.

Since the mid-1800s, Switzerland's history has remained fairly quiet, and the Swiss have remained unyielding in their commitment to neutrality, even as the European Union evolved and developed all around them. During both world wars, Switzerland was faced with hostile neighbors, and was able to maintain neutrality and become a center for international organizations, such as the Red Cross.

Modern Switzerland has not been unscathed by 20th-century wars, however. In the mid-1990s the Swiss government was accused of selling weapons to the Nazis, and many people who had family members perish in the Holocaust filed lawsuits against Swiss banks, accusing them of illegally keeping money and other assets deposited by victims both before and during World War II. In 1998 several Swiss banks agreed to a $1.25 billion settlement, but the government did not opt to participate in the settlement. To this day, the Swiss remain adamantly opposed to joining the European Union.

William Tell

Switzerland has had but one hero, William Tell, and he is a myth, wrote English author and humorist Max Beerbohm. Legend never really says if Tell was a man or a myth, but you can find a statue of him in nearly every town, village and city in Switzerland. The Swiss see Tell as a symbol of independence and the love of liberty, which has characterized this tiny country for centuries.

Made universally popular by 18th-century playwright Friedrich Schiller, the story of William Tell came to be considered fact. According to Schiller, Tell refused to bow to a hat owned by Gessler – the governor of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden – when that hat was placed in the market square of the town of Altdorf. Tell was taken to Gessler, where he was told to shoot an apple off of his (Tell's) son's head. Tell proceeded to split the apple with his first two arrows, and as he did this, he explained to Gessler that he would shoot Gessler himself if he tried to harm Tell's son. Tell was put into irons for his brash speech, but soon escaped to kill Gessler, and was later one of the leaders responsible for Switzerland's independence.

The Land

Geography

Though Switzerland appears to be all mountains, the geography offers a wide variety of features. For instance, the Jura Mountains – which form part of the French/Swiss border – provide a setting of lush pastures and green meadows. Lying between the Jura and the Alps is the Central Plateau, where nearly two-thirds of the Swiss make their homes. Herein lie the majority of family farms and major cities as well. As one passes to the south and southeast, the Alps rise up as rocky crags, snowy peaks, glaciers and gorges. Peaking at 15,203 feet (4,635 m) is the highest point, Dufourspitze, in the Monte Rose group near the Italian border. There are 50 peaks that tower higher than 12,000 feet – among them, the famous Matterhorn, the Eiger, and the Jungfrau. Still farther south, the Alps plummet into Ticino, home to palm trees, warm Mediterranean breezes, and heavy Italian influences.

The Alps

There are many distinct regions of the Swiss Alps. These relatively compact (by North American standards) mountain ranges cover 60% of the country, and are home to glaciers that comprise about 772 square miles of land (2,000 square km). Switzerland is also home to the most extensive glacier range in Europe, the Aletsch Glacier, below, which covers 65 square miles (169 square km). Mount Rosa, at 15,203 ft (4,634 m) is Switzerland's highest peak.

The Alps actually are formed of two parallel mountain ranges: the Bernese Oberland in the west-central part of Switzerland move north into the Glarus Alps, while the southwestern Pennine Alps continue on into the Lepontine Alps and the Rheatian Alps. The Bernese Alps (Bernese Oberland) rise to 14,022 feet (4,300 m) at the Finsteraarhorn, and to 13,642 (4,146 m) at the Junfgrau, the highest peaks in that region. This area can be crossed at only two places in the 110-mile range: either the difficult and steep Grimsel Pass, or the much easier valley of the Reuss – itself a narrow and deep crossing.

The towering Pennine Alps are separated from the Bernese Alps by the valleys of the upper Rhône and Rhine rivers, whose waters discharge in opposite directions. These two valleys are linked by passes at their heads, and contain most of the Alps' population. The southern range can be crossed by a number of passes, none of which are easy, and many of which are closed in the wintertime or made extremely dangerous due to massive amounts of snow and ice. The Simplon, the St. Gotthard and the St. Bernard passes are used the most.

The Alps got their name from the Celtic word for height – alp, itself derived from the Latin albus, meaning white. Both words help to describe these snow-topped mountains that have been a home for the Swiss people for centuries, as well as a route for explorers, traders, and armies throughout history.

Today, many people who live in the Alps are either farmers or involved in some aspect of tourism. Flocks of sheep and herds of cows are taken into high pastures during the short summer months to get fat on the rich grass that grows there, and then are brought back down for the winter. The climate tends to be a bit gentler on the southern slopes, and many of the lower mountains are covered with grapevines, while corn is grown in the valleys. Citrus fruits, such as oranges and lemons, can be found near the Italian border as well.

Land used for agricultural purposes reaches to 4,921 feet (1,500 m), and up to this height is dominated by dense forests. You will see Norway Spruce (a mountain species found on north-facing slopes), Larch (a conifer – found mostly in cantons Valais and Graubünden – that sheds its needles in the wintertime), and other lesser spruces, as well as fir and pine trees. Above 7,220 feet (2,200 m), the forests cease and are suddenly replaced by Alpine mountain pastures (alpe), which are home to a wide array of flowers and hardy berries. At 9,842 feet (3,000 m) only moss and lichen can be found among the rock faces and in crevices.

Due to the shortage of good farmland and unpredictable climate conditions, living in the Alps has never been ideal. Additionally, there is always the threat of the occasional avalanche, which can bury entire villages and shut off